Saturday, 11 May 2013

Confession #17 - Spice up Your Rhythms!

What makes the folk rhythm interesting to our ears is the way that the strum on the 'and of 2' is held for a quarter note's duration. This emphasizes a beat that is normally not accented (i.e. the 'and of 2') and de-emphasizes a beat that is normally accented (i.e. beat 3, which is not played).

EMPHASIZE THE 'AND OF 4'

A variation of this is to strum on the 'and of 4' (e.g. counting eight notes in 4/4 time: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & ) and hold it for a quarter note's duration. Beat 1 of the next measure is de-emphasized because you don't strum on that beat.

Here is a 2 bar strumming pattern that demonstrates this technique:

(Click to Enlarge)

CHANGE CHORDS EARLY

What makes this variation even more interesting is if we change chords early. Typically we change chords at the beginning of a measure. But combining a chord change on the 'and of 4' and sustaining it into the next measure is very interesting to our ears.

Here is a 2 bar strumming pattern that demonstrates this technique:

(Click to Enlarge)

ADD SOME 16TH NOTES

Finally, throwing in just a couple of 16th notes into a strumming pattern can really spice it up.

To play this successfully you need to think about your strumming strategy. I've included Down and Up markers in the TAB. Until you get to the pair of 16th notes, you are using an eight note down-up approach (i.e. strumming down on the beat and strumming up on the 'and' of the beat). When you get to beat 4 you are going to break this pattern and strumdown on beat 4, down on the 'and of 4' (i.e. the first of the two 16th notes), and up on the second 16th note. This will be a bit confusing to your strumming hand at first.

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About Me

I live on the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada and, amongst other things, enjoy listening too and playing music. Guitar is my primary instrument, but I dabble a bit on the keyboard, harmonica and bass.
My musical tastes tend to focus on various pop/rock genres, but I have been known to enjoy a Dwight Yoakam record or two, and some Mile Davis.